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Oct

How to choose the right ERP platform for your business

If your business is ready for a new, modern ERP platform, the next step is to choose your vendor and your partner. Getting this combination right is absolutely crucial to success. The best product will fail if you aren’t working with a great partner who knows it inside out. And a great partner can only do so much with an inferior product. So, you need a balance.

Finding that balance can seem overwhelming. After all, the ERP solution you choose will probably be in place for years if not a decade or more, and the success of your business can hinge on how well that solution suits your needs.

Here are six considerations to factor in:

The fatal flaw in RFPs

Requests for proposals (RFPs) and tenders are a common way for businesses to narrow down their preferred supplier list, while the cost of responding to them can be so high (in comparison to the potential return) that you could be missing out on hearing from vendors who could provide an exceptional solution at a relatively low cost.

The importance of prioritisation

Often, businesses have 400 requirements for their new ERP solution. It’s impossible to give equal priority to so many requirements. Instead, focus on 10 killer business processes that support your business’s key goals. These should be prioritised ahead of requirements that may be nice to have but won’t materially affect the quality of your operations.

The impact of the right goals

It can be confusing when ERP vendors focus on the features and functionality of their solution. Rather than focusing on how you want to achieve value, focus instead on the outcomes you want to achieve. At Intergen, we want to understand your business processes, problems, and opportunities. Then we’ll tell you how we can support them and add value.

The value of accountability

In our experience, businesses that have a weak business case and little or no accountability for the success of an ERP project are less likely to achieve their goals. Customers with a business case that outlines key benefits that need to be extracted from the system, along with accountability measures, tend to hit their goals more consistently.

The contribution from the right partner

The partner you choose to work with is extremely important to the success of your project. The right partner should demand a collaborative approach; they should ask for your time so you can work together to achieve your goals. Keeping a partner at arm’s length is a recipe for project failure, cost overruns, and scope creep.

The benefit of the right vendor

If you’re embarking on an ERP project and you haven’t considered Microsoft, you’re missing out on a key ERP vendor. The Microsoft platform is comprehensive and includes significant value-added capabilities from business intelligence and data analytics to machine learning and more. With the right licences, you could achieve significant cost savings while leveraging one of the world’s leading ERP solutions. And, because Microsoft has an enormous partner and support network, you know you’ll never be on your own.

With these six criteria in mind, you’ll be more likely to choose the right solution for your business.